1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to automated customer support and service in a distributed computing environment and more particularly to a method of reducing a number of xe2x80x9clivexe2x80x9d support calls by providing intelligent, guided self-help in such an environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technical support services and programs are designed to diagnose and solve hardware or software problems that users and/or customers encounter as they use computers. As businesses continue to move on-line, distributed computing environments become more complex and, thus, more difficult to troubleshoot. Indeed, entire businesses now desire to connect their critical business systems directly to employees, customers, vendors and other important constituencies. To this end, many internal or external business network applications are now being connected to the Internet""s World Wide Web to make the information accessible from anywhere using conventional browser software.
Traditional technical support centers place their emphasis on internal tracking and productivity tools, such as problem tracking systems. Such xe2x80x9cback endxe2x80x9d systems exist internally to the support organization and are usually transparent to the customer. Although back-end systems aid internal efficiency, they do little for the actual problem resolution process itself. Problem resolution is typically left to telephony-based technologies such as agent-based automatic call distribution (ACD) support centers and intelligent voice response (IVR) devices.
Such techniques attempt to diagnose and address problems on a remote node without actually having the technician travel to that node. The most common method of technical support is still a telephone conversation with tech support personnel. Other known techniques involve a network xe2x80x9cloginxe2x80x9d to the remote node so that the conditions may be evaluated from the technical support center""s viewpoint. The network connection may be used to run a diagnostic program on the remote node, or xe2x80x9cselfhelpxe2x80x9d fix-it programs may be downloaded to the remote note and executed there.
With the explosive growth of the Internet, yet another approach has become quite popular. This approach involves having the user access a Web server with support content in the form of support notes or FAQs. The user attempts to use this information to xe2x80x9cself servicexe2x80x9d his or her own problem. On its face, this strategy appears sensible as, theoretically, an effective self-service strategy would let users solve problems for themselves (e.g., through a Web browser), with the result of lower call volumes and better service. Unfortunately, however, using the Web as a publishing medium has not resulted in the desired benefits. Indeed, call avoidance has often evolved into xe2x80x9ccustomer avoidancexe2x80x9d. In particular, most normal users do not want to be xe2x80x9cdetectivesxe2x80x9d who have to make a set of guesses about the precise search strings that will get them to the right support solutions. Further, it is quite frustrating for users who cannot solve their problems (by self-service) to then be forced to go through the tedious exercise of later repeating to a support engineer information concerning their self-service attempts. The result is that end users often feel like their vendor is trying to push them away, with the inevitable result that this unintended result may actually occur.
Indeed, studies have shown that, even when a user knows an answer exists to his or her problem, he or she will be able to find the answer only 40% of the time. Further, many xe2x80x9canswersxe2x80x9d have very complex diagnoses and resolutions that are well beyond the capabilities of most computer users.
The present invention addresses this problem.
Guided self-help is facilitated through use of so-called xe2x80x9cactive contentxe2x80x9d pages that are selectively viewable by given xe2x80x9caudiencesxe2x80x9d. Active content is Web-based content (i.e., content viewable by a Web browser) that has one or more maps initiated when certain actions are taken (e.g., selecting a link, clicking a button, or the like). In an illustrative embodiment, a given map is associated with a page via a URL, although any convenient mechanism may be used to associate a page and a map. When that URL results from selecting a link or button on the Web page, a Web server supporting the support chain automation system has extensions that recognize it as a map (rather than, for example, a reference to another Web page). The active content functionality enables the user to determine if a particular technical problem described by an external page applies to the user""s actual system.
According to the invention, active content is developed for specific audiences. Preferably, only the specific audience may then access the content that is written for it. In one embodiment, audiences are defined in a hierarchy, e.g., internal support users, premium end users, and regular end users, with all members of a higher level in the hierarchy (e.g., premium end users) being automatically included in the lower levels (e.g., regular end users). If given content is only written for higher level audiences, a member of a lower level audience does not have access to such content and, in fact, may not even know that it exists. Thus, active content categories that are written for specific higher level audiences are preferably hidden from view from members of lower level audiences.
Thus, according to the invention, given users of the guided self-help system are assigned to audiences within an audience hierarchy. A given audience has associated therewith given authoring or viewing rights. Active content is customized to the given audiences within the hierarchy. The active content is then served to given users during self-help sessions, e.g., in response to search requests, as a function of the audience assignment.
Thus, an audience at the highest level of the hierarchy (e.g., internal support engineers) typically has access to all active content. An audience at the lowest level of the hierarchy (e.g., regular end users) would have access to only some active content, and these users would not have authoring rights, namely, the right to create and post new active content. Certain other users, e.g., members of an intermediate level of the hierarchy, such as premium users, would have rights to see most active content and, perhaps, some authoring rights. Of course, the number of levels of the hierarchy and the privileges associated therewith may be varied to provide a robust guided self-service system.
At customizable points during a given self-help navigation, a user is given the option to escalate to live-help (e.g. an SE located at the technical support server). The question of when the user is given the option to escalate to live-help may depend on what audience to which he or she is assigned. Thus, for example, a user in a higher level audience (e.g., a premium end user who pays a fee for the service) may be afforded the opportunity to escalate to live help before a user in a relatively lower level audience. When the user selects an escalate to live help option, information about the user""s self service efforts is provided to the technical support server automatically so that the user does not need to repeat or otherwise describe to the SE those actions that have already been considered or tried.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and features of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention as will be described. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following Detailed Description.